TS:We used green bell peppers for this dish as per the recipe. I recall reading in the book that the Hunanese use green peppers often in their cooking.

JS speculated that perhaps that is why we keep seeing small green bell peppers at our usual Asian supermarket. Perhaps they stock these as there seems to be more people from mainland China now (as opposed to people from Hong Kong or Taiwan like days of yore).

In the introduction to the recipe, however, Fuchsia (first name basis) talks about the "lazy piquancy" of the peppers in this dish, and how she uses Turkish peppers with a "gentle hotness".

Hmm, these bell peppers had no heat at all.

JS:When we ate a Hunan restaurant a couple of weeks ago, one of their dishes was "Pork with Green Chili", for which they used completely de-seeded and de-ribbed jalapeños. I assume this is because the green chiles they use in Hunan is not readily available here.

I missed the hint of heat in this dish, so for next time, I think we'll go the seeded jalapeño route.

Discard stems of the peppers and cut on an angle into bite-size chunks. Beat the eggs with salt to taste in a small bowl.

Smear the wok with a little oil and heat over a medium flame. Add the bell peppers and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, pressing them against the side of the wok with your wok scoop/ladle, until they are fragrant and tender, their skins a little golden and puckered.

Add the rest of the oil, and when it is hot, pour in the eggs and mix well. Scramble the eggs and peppers, adding a little more salt to taste, if necessary. Don't stir the eggs too constantly so they set into folds. When the eggs are just cooked, turn onto a serving dish.

I am not an egg-crazed person, but I love eggs with peppers and this one would really fit the bill, although I would add soem jalapeños if I had some laying around; yeah, the French I guess did not think it necessary to teach us about Shakespeare. Dosto is great and he was a crazy man in real life too !